By 1870 the Federal census shows Alois and Rosina living in Cleveland, in ward 6, with three of the six children they would eventually have together, and four children from their previous marriages. Note that the last name of the family is misspelled “Bates” in the schedule, something that was not uncommon. Also note that Alois’ place of birth is given as Wirtemburg, and Rosina’s as Ohio. Both are wrong. Nevertheless this is certainly their record. Unfortunately addresses were not given in the 1870 census, but ward 6 did include Marion Street, where the family would ultimately settle, so it is possible they were already there. Listed in the schedule were:

A photograph of Edward R. Betz (rear, 2nd from left) and Charles Betz (rear, far right), dated 1899, when Edward was about 23 and Charles, who was Alois and Rosina’s first child and was born in 1866 or 1867, was about 33 or 34. Probably the best picture of Charles that we’ve found to date. The other individuals are unknown, as is the dog.

An undated group photo taken at the home of Frank and Lena Sar-Louis (Sarlouis). In the rear, left to right, we have Conrad “Cooney” Betz, Lena M. Betz, Edward R. Betz, and Lena Sar-Louis (Sarlouis) (nee Betz). In the front row, left to right, we have Frank Sar-Louis (Sarlouis), Louis Betz, an unknown boy, Bernadette Keller, and her father Matthew Keller, who was Rosina Betz’s son from her first marriage to Joseph Keller. This is one of the few good photos we have of Louis, who was Alois and Rosina’s second child, born in 1868. From Edward and Lena’s apparent age we date this to shortly after they were married in 1900.

An undated photo of a young Edward R. Betz posing with some friends. I’ve labeled this as circa 1895, but I really think it was closer to 1892 or 1893 when he would have been sixteen or seventeen years of age.

This very degraded photograph shows an elderly woman seated in a chair, with a gaudy stars-and-stripes themed cardboard frame. The labeling on the back indicates this is “Aunt Lena Sar Louis’ mother, Mrs. Betz, about 1918.” Lena Sar-Louis (Sarlouis) was born Magdalen R. Betz, and was a niece of Alois Betz. Therefore the woman depicted here is the wife of a sibling of Alois’ who also emigrated to the U.S. If there are any descendants of Lena and Frank Sar-Louis’ (whose son Dr. Alphonse Sar-Louis married Sarah Carrick) who know this woman’s name, or the name of her husband, we’d love to hear from you.

A larger print of the October, 1890 photograph of Alois Betz at the age of 63. This print is somewhat more faded than the smaller image we have, but has the original photographer’s imprint on the reverse.

The official record of the death of Peter C. Schneider, my great-grandmother Lena Betz’s father, in an accident between his buggy and a motorized streetcar. The article detailing the news of the incident can be viewed here.

This lapel pin was contained in the same small box that held the folded remnants of the article describing Mr. Schneider’s untimely death in an accident at the age of 39. The pin is about 3/4 inch in diameter. Peter C. Schneider was my great-grandmother Lena Betz’s father, the husband of Frances Schneider (nee Becker), and at the time of his death was employed as the Cleveland agent for the Cincinnati Brewing Company.

This very tattered and fragile clipping from a Cleveland newspaper, February 26th or 27th of 1891, details the sad end of Peter Schneider, the father of my great-grandmother Lena Betz, at the age of 39. He was driving his buggy down Cedar Avenue when he was run down by a motorized streetcar. This would likely have been one of the very early electrified lines of the East Cleveland Railway Company. The most chilling thing about the report is the sentence “Koebler’s ambulance was called and the injured man removed to his home.” That was all they could do for a seriously injured human in 1891.

Peter Schneider was born in Germany in 1852, and probably emigrated to the U.S. in the 1870s. He is buried in Saint Stephen Cemetery in Hamilton, Ohio along with his wife Francis (nee Becker), who appears in some photos on this site. The small box in which the above article was stored also contained a lapel pin with Peter’s picture on it. A scan can be viewed here. A transcription of the article follows the links.

KILLED
By a Motor on Cedar Avenue
FATAL ACCIDENT TO A MAN
DRIVING ACROSS THE
TRACKS
Peter Schneider, Agent of the
Cincinnati Brewing Company,
Run Down by a Motor on
Cedar-av. and Injured So Badly
That Death Resulted in a Short
Time
Peter C. Schneider, the local agent of the
Cincinnati brewing company, was killed by
a Cedar-av. motor, Wednesday morning
about 9 o'clock. He was driving on Cedar
near East Madison-av., and was crossing
the tracks when struck by the rapidly
moving motor. Schneider's buggy was
demolished by the force of the col-
lision and he was run down by the
motor. When picked up he was in-
sensible at the side of the tracks.
Koebler's ambulance was called and the
injured man removed to his home. He
died before noon, having received injuries
about the chest that made recovery im-
possible.
Schneider was married and lived at 36
Chanel-st. He was quite well known in
this city.

Here’s something I didn’t know about marshmallows: the original form of the treat used the extracted sap of the marshmallow plant. Interestingly mass-market extruded marshmallows weren’t invented until 1948. Any that were available to Lena in the early 1900’s would probably have been hand-made.

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Mark is a programmer and system architect with nearly two decades of experience. He typically works with small teams of talented developers on next-generation responsive web and mobile applications. Over the years he has built production systems in BASIC, Pascal, C, C++, C#, Python, Java, and javascript ... (more)